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Download Download SOLIDARITY AFTER THE COUP Denis MacShane The paradox of Poland is quite straightforward. The workers, intellectuals and activists who formed Solidarity did not know how to convert the gains of August 1980 into permanent change. The generals, security officers and party hardliners who declared a 'state of war' on 13 December 1981 did not know how to convert the locking up of Lech Walesa and other Solidarity leaders into a lasting solution of the country's economic and social problems. The list of problems without easy answers is long enough inside Poland. But the history of Solidarity and the continuing struggle of the Polish working class has presented a number of questions for Western socialists: what is the nature of Russian and East European political systems and what should be the relationships between organisa- tions of the Western labour movement-political parties and trade unions- and organisations with similar names in Comecon countries? Also Western socialists have had to consider what political and economic response would best support Solidarity. The situation has produced some strange bedfellows. Ultra-leftists have joined forces with right-wing reactionaries in demanding a complete economic boycott of Poland and the Soviet Union and a withdrawal of credit that would push Poland into default. Western Communist Parties have stood shoulder to shoulder with bankers in Wall Street, the City and West Germany, in arguing against any inter- ruption in financial and economic relationships with Poland. The para- doxes stretch far beyond the Polish frontiers. Commentaries appearing not long after 13 December 198 1 suggested that Solidarity should have been better prepared. The many warning signs of the authorities' unwillingness to compromise should have alerted the union to adopt a more radical course of action or, at least, to make more careful plans to withstand a probable act of repression. The fact that no such course of action was taken indicates that Solidarity was far more of a trade union than those who dubbed it an embryonic political party or social mass movement would credit. Defining trade unions is an kxeicise best left to the Webbs. Anyone who has spent a moment exarnin- ing models of trade unions from Britain, West Germany, France or Scandinavia let alone those from the Americas, Asia or Africa will appreciate the vast differences between forms of trade-union organisation, their declared and achieved aims, and their relationships with other forces 105 106 THE SOCIALIST REGISTER 1982 in society. Social, political and cultural backgrounds have shaped trade unions in various ways in different countries. But all unions share the common characteristic of organising workers rather than citizens in general, and in presenting demands related to working life as a priority over more general social and political demands. In Britain the TUC Congress debates and formulates programmes on issues that are far removed from the shop floor. Policy issues range from an alternative economic strategy, withdrawal from the EEC and nuclear disarmament to cultural policy and access to the mass media. Yet there is no suggestion that the TUC is seeking to replace the Labour Party. Solidarity put for- ward a wide range of demands concerning changes in the political, economic and social operation of Poland but it perceived itself, right up to the last moment, as a union with all the limitations that unionism entails. The relative lack of preparation for the December coup de force under- lines this view. Some preparation had been made, notably in Wroclaw, where all the union's regional funds were withdrawn from the bank shortly before 13 December. In the Lodz region, a traditionally militant area, the idea of workers' guards had been discussed but mainly in Connect- ion with proposals for 'active strikes'-syndicalist takeovers of factories by workers who would continue to produce and distribute but without reference to managers or local state representatives. Since 13 December there has been a war of articles and books over the exact nature of Solidarity. This war has been conducted, in part, by people deserving respect because they were locked up in December 1981, and whose articles, interviews and speeches up to that point are available. Their analyses and comments are based on direct experience inside Poland. On the other hand, polemicists sitting comfortably in the West have also engaged in the war of words, moralising about Solidarity's failure in this or that aspect of its troubled existence since August 1980 and earnestly lecturing the union on what it should or should not have done. Much of this exterior analysis is based on the belief that Solidarity should somehow have immobilised the security services and armed forces, either through agitation and propaganda or forms of mass activity outside barracks and police stations. This would have been as practical a course of action as asking SPG police at Grunwick to lay down their truncheons and link arms with the pickets. Despite the appearance of a quasi- revolutionary situation in Poland the state never lost control over its armed forces and militia. The disintegration of the Polish United Workers Party (PUWP), the collapse of economic direction at central and local levels, and the authoritative presence of Solidarity in so many areas of society hitherto the exclusive preserve of the PUWP, created the illusion that state power had evaporated. That 'the Party equals the State' in Comecon countries, was shown to be a dangerously misleading assumption. Nowhere in the world have trade unions been able to resist armed SOLIDARITY AFTER THE COUP 107 state power, ruthlessly applied. The extremely powerful and well-implanted German trade-union movement collapsed the moment Hitler came to power in the face of mass arrests, internments and closure of offices- tactics similar to those used by Jaruzelski. With a complete shutdown of communications, strikes and occupations become atomised. As the Chilean workers found in 1973, working-class resistance is difficult in the face of security forces who can use tanks to break through factory gates and are willing to shoot to kill. There can be little doubt that the spontaneous resistance of the Polish workers was generalised and strong; the sparse picture that we have shows widespread opposition and the use of armed force to smash strikes in the week following 13 December. The full extent of the resistance will not be known until a greater freedom of movement and communication is restored in Poland. But following that unpleasant week there was a return to work albeit a sullen and un- cooperative return, punctuated by the Christmas break-but a return nonetheless. Again this follows the pattern of trade-union suppressions in other countries where, following the initial reactive anger, the leader- less working class conforms to behavioural norms and goes back to work. The state also directed its application of martial law to controlling workplace relationships. The first move was the suppression of Solidarity. The union was suspended, its leaders arrested, its offices shut down and its equipment, including key printing machinery was confiscated. The process of turning Poland into a military dictatorship was achieved by declaring a 'state of war', later ratified by the Polish Sejm (parliament). In addition to being Prime Minister, First Secretary of the PUWP and Minister of Defence, General Wojciech Jaruzelski became Chairman of the Military Council of National Salvation. The term seemed to reflect Latin American language; a hunt through the classic Marxist texts yields nothing which combines the words 'military', 'national', and 'salvation'. The Council's acronym in Polish-WRON-was unfortuantely close to the Polish word for 'crow7, wrona. This congruence provided an immediate image for underground cartoonists and delighted the sharp-witted Poles whose national symbol is the eagle. There was nothing funny however about the powers that the Military Council of National Salvation assumed. These included the power to arrest anyone by simple administrative decision and detain them indefinite- ly; to place under military orders any citizen at any time; to implement direct military control over all industrial, manufacturing and service sectors vital to the economy (notably mines, steel, heavy industry, ship- building, cars, transport, post, energy supply, communications and the media); and to shoot any citizen opposing the Council's decisions or found disturbing public order. The Council also issued regulations which prohibited any meetings of groups; being on the streets without identity papers; striking or taking part in any protest action; participating in a 108 THE SOCIALIST REGISTER 1982 banned or suspended organisation (i.e. Solidarity as well as many other associations and organisations stopped fiom functioning after 13 December); being in the streets between 10 pm and 6 am; and taking photographs. According to official Polish figures some 6,000 people were interned. Unofficial Polish sources put the figure much higher. It was impossible to find out the exact number. Details emerged quickly enough about the better-known internees and the more notorious internment camps. But information from the more isolated regions was hard to come by even in Poland itself. The Military Council showed considerable skill in its suppression of information and its control of both Polish and Western journalists. Every mechanism for communication inside the country-television,
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